There are about seven billion people on earth.

If you wanted to think about each person alive at the moment you could afford to give each person around 1/200th of a second of thought individually.

So it’s not that surprising that we give most people on earth very little thought.
I’ve never been deeply sad. I’ve lost people I love to horrible diseases, and some to old age, but I don’t know what it could feel like to be so sad that I wouldn’t want to live any more, I guess I’ve never been depressed.

And then someone that you know peripherally through their work dies by their own hand, and each of us wonders if that was anything, however small we could have done that would have made their lives just a little bit better, maybe enough that they wouldn’t have wanted to kill themselves.

It’s a simplistic thought, and most of us know that it’s not practical to think retrospectively. Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve just wastes energy and almost never changes future behavior.

This week Robin Williams, one of the funniest people I have ever seen took his own life! Someone whose drama, comedy and banter was always something to treasure. I love his films, his standup, his sitcoms and interviews. But wow what a price to pay for talent. I never knew that his private thoughts were so tormented. I know I wasn’t alone, the people whose lives were better for his creative output must be at least in the hundreds of millions.

Truly shocking to find out that someone who seemed so together, intelligent, and in tune with and able to influence human emotions is such nice ways was so unhappy, even just for moments (however long or short) of his life.

If makes you realize just how fragile happiness can be.

I take pleasure in making people feel good, and I do hope that sometimes I make a difference in some people’s lives.